–hallmarks of accelerated world-class healthcare thrust, Jagdeo says
–hints at possible subsidy for specialised treatments not available at public facilities/locally through private sector partnerships, Jagdeo says
By Trina Williams
AS the government continues to focus on cutting-edge infrastructure and better management, the goal of delivering world-class healthcare continues to be realised and expanded.
This was emphasised by People’s Progressive Party (PPP) General Secretary and Guyana’s Vice-President, Bharrat Jagdeo, during a recent press conference at Freedom House.
With the goal being to have world-class healthcare for all, he noted that there are several components to achieving this.
First is modern infrastructure and equipment. According to the Vice-President, the government has embarked on a nationwide process to make the necessary investments to achieve this.
“So it’s not just the 12 hospitals that we are building, the new ones… but a series of new polyclinics and rehabilitating a lot of the existing hospitals and equipping them,” he said.
For instance, the hospital at Linden would see a US$30 million upgrade and so will the Bartica and Best Hospitals.
The Vice-President further highlighted the partnership between Guyana and Mount Sinai, where they are now providing management support at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation.
He said: “Now Mount Sinai and Northwell are two top US institutions. They run a network of hospitals in the US and globally, and we expect them to help us by training a lot of our personnel, and to provide management support to the hospitals, because that’s crucial to get these hospitals to deliver on our [commitments].”
Jagdeo then highlighted the other component, which is personnel. He noted that the government has already commenced the recruitment process.
“So we believe our package is starting to be competitive, where we can recruit people and bring them in, even temporarily, until our people can be trained, but we may not still get our Guyanese alone, so we may have to recruit from around the world to bring people to work here. We’re looking for specialists to run all of these hospitals and more doctors, whilst we’re training a lot of our people to specialise,” he said.
He also noted that there are a range of training programmes available for locals. The other area is the availability of drugs and medical supplies, across the system.
Jagdeo said that sometimes in the procurement area, the distribution is not equal because of several factors.
“So there’s [sic] several components to better care delivery, and all of these are being addressed,” he said.
HEALTH-CARE DELIVERY
The Vice-President pointed to the collaboration with the private sector to bolster quality care.
He said: “So if we cannot deliver the quality care in the public sector, say in a Cancer Institute or something of that, where it’s private that people have to pay to go but they don’t want to go abroad. Now, very expensive abroad [treatment], we will then have a programme where we can help to pick up some of the costs of their getting treatment in the private sector for specialised care that we don’t provide.”
He noted that a lot of emphasis is being placed on preventative medicine and primary healthcare. This is why the $10,000 health voucher recently launched by the government would enable hospitals to get baseline data.
“We want every citizen to have a file in the health system. That’s why we Electronic Patient Management record system,” he said.
With telemedicine also being pursued, Jagdeo noted that healthcare in remote areas is being bolstered.
“But no opposition member would discuss this or the other parties. They don’t have a clue. They will talk about how we going to deliver better healthcare, but you can’t even get details of that. I can tell you the details of every hospital,” Jagdeo said.